Take our survey
Give specific feedback on our proposals by completing our survey by 11.59pm, Friday 30 May 2025.
About Price Submission 2026
Every five years, Victorian water corporations develop a price submission – a five-year plan that outlines services, infrastructure investments, expenditure, and proposed prices for that period. We are currently developing our 2026 Price Submission, which covers the period from 2026 to 2031.
Our 2026 submission will detail the services, investments and prices we intend to deliver over the next five years across water, sewerage, waterways and drainage. It also outlines the cost of delivering these services and the prices we intend to charge. Victoria’s independent regulator, the Essential Services Commission (ESC), reviews our submission to protect the interests of customers.
We’re in the decade that matters, and the actions we take now will define our water-future. We intend to invest now to ensure value for customers and sustainability for our services and infrastructure now and for generations to come.
Our Price Submission 2026 has been shaped in partnership with customers, community and stakeholders across Greater Melbourne. We’re continuing to work closely with our customers to refine our proposals for the final submission to the ESC. Our goal is to ensure they reflect community expectations, meet our service obligations, and support the essential investments needed to tackle current and future challenges.
Public playback
Since 2023, we’ve engaged with more than 3,000 people to help shape and test the investments and proposed prices in our 2026 Price Submission. The insights we’ve gathered through this engagement have been brought together in our ‘Playback’ document.
Across May, we’re playing back what we’ve heard from customers – and checking in to make sure we’ve got it right before we finalise our submission to the Essential Services Commission (ESC).
The ‘Playback’ is a short summary document that outlines:
- what we’ve heard and learnt from you
- our investment proposals
- emerging Melbourne Water performance outcomes
- our proposed impact on customer bills
- our package of work to support customers experiencing vulnerability.
Information collected during this phase will help finalise Melbourne Water’s Price Submission 2026.
Have your say
We’re inviting your feedback so we can understand our proposed bill impacts and whether our investment and performance plans meet your expectations.
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Provide general feedback
Leave a comment on our proposal via our online form.
Register for a focus group
Our online focus groups ensure all voices are represented in community feedback.
Join a pop-up event
Get your questions answered at our pop-up event near you.
Understanding what matters to you
We’ve spoken with customers and communities across Greater Melbourne about their water priorities and expectations. Now, we’re playing back what we’ve heard, checking in to make sure we’ve got it right and whether our proposed investment and performance plans meet your expectations.
We’re committed to placing your interests at the centre of this process so we can deliver value that meets your needs today, tomorrow and for years to come.
Throughout May, there are several ways to share your thoughts and feedback so you can help shape Melbourne’s water future.
Find out about upcoming opportunities.
Who have we heard from?
Over the past 18 months, we have engaged through a range of activities to understand the needs and priorities of our customers and broader community.
We engaged with:
- community
- local councils
- water companies
- Traditional Owners
- direct service customers
- consumer advocacy groups
- development and planning industry
- government and its agencies.
What we’ve heard so far
Since May 2024, more than 40 people have attended 12 meetings of our community deliberative panel for Price Submission 2026. The community panel is a representative group of people from across Greater Melbourne to voice community priorities.
Over the last year, the panel has discussed:
- The challenges facing the water industry, including: population growth, a more variable climate, water equity, ageing infrastructure, caring for Country, and protecting and enhancing the environment.
- How Melbourne Water can better support customers who experience vulnerability, and ensuring equitable access to water, sewerage, waterways and drainage services.
- Areas Melbourne Water should focus our performance outcomes on and key investment areas.
- The impact Melbourne Water has on customer bills and the level of investment in key areas.
We’ve heard from over 3,000 community members to identify their values, investment priorities and willingness to pay across three surveys. Follow this page to hear about other opportunities and insights.
Some of the communities’ priorities so far include:
- Clean, safe and reliable water services.
- Resilient and sustainable sewerage services and infrastructure.
- Continue to support and protect waterway health.
- Ensure resilience and reliability for the whole water cycle (water, sewerage, flood and drainage management, and waterway health) now and into the future.
- Keep bills as low as possible but also support investments in reliable services for a growing Melbourne and changing environment.
- Provide regional and intergenerational equity and hardship support to customers who need it.
- Active collaboration with partners including with Traditional Owners, local government and delivery partners.
Melbourne Water respectfully acknowledges the Bunurong, Gunaikurnai,
Taungurung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples as the Traditional
Owners and Custodians of the land and water on which we rely and operate.
We
pay our deepest respects to their Elders - past, present and emerging.
